Truly Home

Knowing me I don't post this regularly but I just remembered something of what I was watching on the tele and the gist of it is as follows:

When doing floral arrangements, after we are done, we tend to add one too many flowers into it on intentions of making it "perfect". Instead this decorator removed a stalk from it citing how his grandmother feels there should be room for butterflies to fly in between.

Picture courtesy from http://www.flickr.com/photos/dornickdesigns/2725228609/

I somehow extrapolated this to life in general on how it should not be overcrowded and trying to be made picture perfect. After all running after so many superficial things ruins life's beauty and happiness until we tend not to pause a moment to allow the good things that are to happen to actually happen. Imperfections are what that make life beautiful and non-monotonous to say the least.

On a more cheerful note and not to be dampened by the rain now or the frosty mutterings going about in the country; is a truly beautiful moment of being in our country. One of our Chinese neighbours gave away her excess homegrown produce of bayam and kangkung to all of us (being different in race and creed). It was not something shocking to us living here for the past decade or so to witness such things which are of norm here in this quaint neighbourhood. There was no nonsense of being untouchable or uneatable since ... forever, we just know life that way. Our Malay neigbour today passed us a bag full of cookies and savouries before they left for their kampung. The same of which all of us do in time for our ethnic festivities.

If only things can go back to the way they used to be in other places, life would be so much better and newspapers much pleasant to read. After all we who never did change in the first place, never knew of it.

Seriousness? (Not Worth It If It Involves People)

True.

Human beings are too hard to satisfy and honestly, it is not worth it as they can forget you in just a second. So, the message is that it is pointless being committed and pouring life into something that is plainly lifeless and corrosive.

Hence, just follow the take it easy policy. At least you won't be disappointed and will be surprised by what you might unearth.

Treasure in fact.



P/S I am certainly not talking about any "relationship" because its neither here and there.

Another Nice Anecdote

Ever heard the story of the giant ship engine that failed? The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed! A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.

"What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"

So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."

The man sent a bill that read:

Tapping with a hammer ...........$2.00

Knowing where to tap .................$9998.00

Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort in your life makes all the difference.

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True. Maybe if we stopped channeling our energies to futile goals and project it in the right way, we might make a difference.

An Inspirational Tale from the Net

I happen to come across the following story on the net. Pure fiction but also bona-fide inspirational:

A boy was born to a couple after eleven years of marriage.

They were a loving couple and the boy was the gem of their eyes. When the boy was around two years old, one morning the husband saw a medicine bottle open.He was late for office so he asked his wife to cap the bottle and keep it in the cupboard. His wife, preoccupied in the kitchen totally forgot the matter.

The boy saw the bottle and playfully went to the bottle fascinated by its color and drank it all. It happened to be a poisonous medicine meant for adults in small dosages. When the child collapsed the mother hurried him to the hospital, where he died.

The mother was stunned. She was terrified how to face her husband. When the distraught father came to the hospital and saw the dead child, he looked at his wife and uttered just five words.

Questions:

1. What were the five words?
2. What is the implication of this story?

Answer:

The husband just said 'I am with you Darling'.

The husband's totally unexpected reaction is a proactive behavior.

The child is dead.

He can never be brought back to life.

There is no point in finding fault with the mother.

Besides, if only he had taken time to keep the bottle away, this would not have happened.

No one is to be blamed.

She had also lost her only child.

What she needed at that moment was consolation and sympathy from the husband.

That is what he gave her.

If everyone can look at life with this kind of perspective, there would be much fewer problems in the world.

'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step'. Take off all your envies, jealousies, un-forgiveness, selfishness, and fears. And you will find things are actually not as difficult as you think.

MORAL OF THE STORY:

This story is really worth reading.

Sometimes we spend time in asking who is responsible or whom to blame, whether in a
relationship, in a job or with the people we know.

By this way we miss out something called LIFE.

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Minus, the cheese, the story seems practical on how we sometimes forget to live.

Facts of Life

How do sometimes people seem to have it all?

At least they look so in photos ... Either my idea of skewed perfection is my definition of "having it all" or maybe they are just simply photogenic (my eyes always look crossed and lopsided or glazed by the flash on my specs in photos),

or maybe having it all does not really matter and being happy with what you have and trying to make full use of what little you have is the silver lining at the end of the day....

"SHOOT FOR THE MOON AND IF YOU MISS YOU WILL BE STILL AMONG THE STARS"

Quote from P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern

Picture sourced from http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyhoffman/121727283/

A Tale Worth Posting

I rarely do sentimental but I would have sinned if I was not moved by the humanity in the following story:

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A man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the door.

SON: "Daddy, may I ask you a question?"

DAD: "Yeah sure, what is it?" replied the man.

SON: "Daddy, how much do you make an hour?"

DAD: "That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?" the man said angrily.

SON: "I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?"

DAD: "If you must know, I make Rs.100 an hour."

SON: "Oh," the little boy replied, with his head down.

SON: "Daddy, may I please borrow Rs.50?"

The father was furious, "If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I work hard everyday for such this childish behavior."

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.

The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?

After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think:

Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that Rs.50 and he really didn't ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.

"Are you asleep, son?" he asked.

"No daddy, I'm awake," replied the boy.

"I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier,"said the man.

"It's been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here's the Rs.50 you asked for."

The little boy sat straight up, smiling. "Oh, thank you daddy!" He yelled.

Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills. The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his father.

"Why do you want more money if you already have some?" the father grumbled.

"Because I didn't have enough, but now I do," the little boy replied.

"Daddy, I have Rs.100 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you."

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little son , and he begged for his forgiveness.

It's just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life. We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts.

Do remember to share that Rs.100 worth of your time with someone you love.

If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. But the family & friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than to our family.
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Life is not merely a march to death, there is depth and meaning to everything we live by. Our existence is always cherished by another soul all the time. So, think twice before being narcissistic, suicidal or even homicidal for that matter. Celebrate and cherish life by living it!